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Ask: What is the best way to deal with idols?

“I now see
clearly my attachment to various false idols - the so-called special
relationships - those things of the world that appear as sources of peace but
which I know intellectually, intuitively, and through endless disappointing
experience can never deliver lasting peace. Nevertheless, they feel so real and
appealing as I covet and pursue them on a daily basis. As bright as these
golden calves seem to be, worshiping them is fraught with fear, and a gnawing
sense of lack. Obsessing over them leads me down a distracting, dead end path.
How best to deal with these obstacles to peace and ultimately get past them?” – ES

The mind is always looking for
relief from lack. You won’t let go of idols until you have something to replace
them even though you recognize that ultimately they do not work.

Only your awareness of Truth will
bring the lasting sense of wholeness that you seek in idols. When you find your
mind turning to an idol for relief remind yourself how you’ve learned it does
not work. Remember specific examples of how it does not work. Then turn to
Truth instead. Remember your experiences of Truth and remind yourself that only
in Truth can you find the wholeness that you seek. Let yourself rest in Truth
for a while. As your awareness of Truth grows you will find yourself longing
less and less for the old, futile ways of looking for relief from lack.

>>>>>

Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, 4 Habits for Inner Peace and Releasing Guilt for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

Will, I'm not going to address your frustration or any possible misperception here, just comment on the experience of the Holy Relationship:

Remember, in ACIM Bill and Helen are told in the section "I need do nothing" (I think) when Helen must've been thinking about going off to a monastery or something that "your way will be different. It will be a relationship..." (Paraphrasing here). The Holy Relationship is only one of many possible experiences. Don't take what was meant for them literally for yourself. Open yourself to YOUR way and don't have expectations. So much has happened to me that I did not expect - did not even know to expect! And not all of it is in ACIM. And I've certainly not experienced a lot that is in ACIM. ACIM is just one of many teachings but each path in the end unfolds in its own unique way.I've found that expectations often make a student miss the miracles that they have experienced.

I'm not going to address anything specific you said, Will, because then it would just end up sounding like an argument. I'll just say that where you are now - I was there many, many times along the way...

I had to share this. It is from a Star Trek episode called Spectre of the Gun written in 1968. "The team fears for their lives, but Mr. Spock explains his realization. He notes that what they are experiencing is not real, despite appearances, but is an elaborate illusion occurring in the minds of the crew that is only as real as their minds accept it to be." A fun story with further detail on Wikipedia. Love & Light, DB

DB says, why my comment you ask? When I went to Liz's blog and saw all these deleted comments, it looked like a shoot out at the OK Corral and the story I reference is about Captain Kirk, Spock and the crew being transported to a hologram staged in the wild west at the OK Corral. I have a dry sense of humor folks . . . beam me up Scotty.

Yes - Gene Rodenberry wrote some Course-like themed episodes! You've reminded me of the one where they laughed at some smokey monster who kept bothering them on board the Starship Enterprise - laughed at it collectively instead of fearing it, and it suddenly dissolved! What cool stuff!

... looks like shoot-out at the ok corral - that is funny! Oh, yeah, anonymous, I remember that episode from Star Trek! I was always glued to my TV set on Thursday nights (this is showing my AGE)) to watch Star Trek. My husband actually bought all of the episodes on CD for me for Christmas a few years back. As a kid, I was drawn to this show not only because I love science fiction but also because of the "enlightened" scripts used for the episodes. Of course I didn't know that at the time! The Mind recognizes the Truth even when the personal mind doesn't!

Waking this morning, I found I was our of sorts, a side trip my ego takes when feeling threatened. I know not to judge it, to be with it and go to the Truth in my mind. I then take a side trip of my own to Liz's blog and a smile surfaces as I read the comments. Feeling lighter, I am able to look at this feeling as just a block "the smokey monster" that it is and just laugh along with the crew on this site. Light beam to all.

Hey, this just came to me. I must be feeling better. Creative spirit engaged. We are all on the "Sonship" Enterprise, time traveling in space, on a voyage to find our way back home and thus, awaken with awareness that we never left.

The shoot out was my reaction to finding out the course is not what it purports to be. A reaction to the reality of what Liz is inferring here and in our corresponcdence. That the text of A course in miracles is not talking to us, that it has nothing to do with us, that it is a story about a woman in the 1970's and that's it! Ask your mentor to explain if she has the courage.

I remember a conversation I had with my older brother about a year or so ago. Pertinent to what I'm about to share is the fact that my brother is a practicing Christian dabbling in New Age Spirituality, brought up the same as I, Catholic and me, at that time, I was studying Eckhart Tolle's teachings and soon after came ACIM. After some time talking, we both arrived with honesty of heart, "we know nothing" and you know what, I remember it feeling quite freeing to say those words, "I know nothing" but it doesn't mean I stop exploring, experiencing and evolving. For me it is in the stance of not knowing and letting the analyzing drop by the wayside that allowed my mind a freedom to be taught in whatever form and in whatever readiness I am able to receive it (or not). DB

I never said ACIM has nothing to do with anyone else. I'm talking about reading in the context of it coming to a psychologist in the 1960s who was having a very particular relationship experience. There is very much in there for all of us. You just have to generalize the specifics. For example, my experience with the Holy Relationship was very brief where theirs was ongoing. Therefore, my lessons from it were my own. And I've only encountered only one or two others who have had a similar Holy Relationship experience. So for most students what they take away from ACIM about the Holy Relationships is different. Certainly we can all learn from lessons meant intially for others. The point is to not take it so literally that you make yourself "wrong" or a "failure" because you are not having the exact same experience. Keep an open mind, clarify with the Holy Spirit, and be gentle with yourself.

Liz, you said above that meaning of the holy relationship was meant for Helen and don’t take it literally. If we can dismiss the accuracy of what the text is saying about this concept then it has to be true for all terms and concepts in the course. To simply dismiss what we are talking about with a ‘you should know better’ is… How many blogs have you written without examining in detail what we’re talking about. Putting it out front where people like myself who have read and studied the course as something that was meant for all students as an accurate description of what was meant by the terms and concepts…I mean I don’t know what to say. What were you thinking? What is Jesus thinking? You call yourself a mentor but fail to see the seriousness of people spending years of their lives reading this document out of context at least out of the context that you yourself just recently became aware of. Your above explanation is a sorry piece of work. I looked to you for the truth and you omitted it and by omitting it try to put the responsibility on others. Shame. You said yourself on a recent blog how different it reads when you take it as being for Helen and not us and how long it took for you to realize what was going on. It made a SUBSTANTIAL impact on you. So what about passing this piece of information that you were going through on to us, the people coming to your site? People who have been studying the course under the same context as I have will have to decide what this means for each one on an individual basis. Some will be able to intellectually gloss it over like anonymous above and other will have some serious thinking to do.

What has me so upset is I read the text and studied the course as Truth. It was Truth for Helen but the rest of us got interpretation. Sure there is good stuff to be had from the course but we are left on our own to figure out it. This interpretation of what is going on, if it is fact the right interpretation, is a betrayal. Myself I'm not sure I'm going to buy into this lose hit or miss interpretation that Liz is advocating. Trying to understand the course under those conditions is not possible,

I have this posted on my fridge . . . "I do not know what anything, including this, means. And so I do not know how to respond to it. And I will not use my own past learning as the light to guide me now." In my back pocket, I carry . . . Lesson 5 "I am never upset for the reason I think." Lesson 193 "All things are lessons God would have me learn." Still sending my light, DB

After leaving Liz's blog, I opened an email I received from ACIM Society and the link to workbook lesson 13. In the beginning of the new year, I felt compelled to review the workbook lessons a second time and I am glad I did. As with Liz's blog, I find the commentaries helpful to my study and so I share the link for anyone interested.

Will, you are never left on your own to study ACIM. I have taught over and over and over again that words are just symbols and as such are open to interpretation. ACIM is no different. What I write is no different.. Therefore, if you want to study something in a way that will lead you to Truth, study with the Teacher of Truth (Holy Spirit) in your mind. There is no other way.

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I have been a student of A Course in Miracles since 1984, a life coach since 2000, and a mentor for students of A Course in Miracles and 4 Habits for Inner Peace since 2006. You can learn more about me and what I offer at my website, www.acimmentor.com.